Author Archives: thedailyjulie

(Vday flowers, local chocolates and sweet card from my main squeeze as tweeted earlier today. Jason had them waiting for me at my 6 am workout in the basement. What a keeper!)

Truth: I love Valentine’s Day and only think it’s overly commercialized if you let it be. Love is great and what’s wrong with celebrating it? So, in honor of today, I’m going to tell you all a little love story… my love story.

I’ve already covered how Jason and I met and how he proposed (though I can’t seem to find the links to those stories. boo! I will update if I find them), so this story will focus on the “in between.”

So, Jason and I had our first date on my dad’s birthday. That’s the only way I remotely remember that it was August 27. It had been a little over a week between when we first met and when we had our first date, so I had kind of forgotten what he even looked like. Our first date was great as evidenced by the obligatory bathroom call (I didn’t text until I met Jason) to my girl friends, and when I got home, my friend Amanda was there and looked at me and said that we were going to get married. Pshhhaw/whatever was what I thought. I was in my senior year of college and totally interested in living it up before I entered the real world. Having a boyfriend was on my radar of things that would cramp my style.

About three months in, we had a DTR talk and decide to just keep things loosey goosey like they were. Mind you, I was not dating anyone else (neither was Jason), but I also wasn’t really interested in dating anyone else, but I also wasn’t sure I wanted a boyfriend, but I also didn’t want to seem clingy. So, I was like, fine whatever that’s cool. Then fast forward another month and I was out with some friends at a local watering hole and Jason and his friend showed up. One of my friends who had a little too much too drink sees Jason and starts yelling “BOYFRIEND!!!!” over and over to him. EEEK! I immediately shushed her and started shaking my head. I was so afraid Jason would think I was telling everyone that we were serious when we had decided not to be. Well, Jason misinterpreted my body language as the fact that I had another boy there. Can you even believe that?! I didn’t find out that’s what he thought until the next day because he left in a huff.  So, then Jason goes off on a snow boarding trip and when he comes back we go out to dinner. I told him that my standoffishness that night was because I didn’t know what to call him, and he responded… well… you can call me whatever you want. And our coupledom  status was solidified —- four months after we started dating.

So, then we dated for a whole other year before the first time we said “I love you.” When I met Jason, he had come out of a long term relationship with a crazy girl*, so I didn’t want to pressure him into anything until he felt ready, even though I knew long before that I did indeed love him. Let me also note that Jason was the first man I ever actually loved, so I think I was confused by my feelings for a while. Anywho, we went to Breckenridge to celebrate New Year’s with some friends. I was 22 and he was 25. And after our night of revelry, Jason professed his love. I was so happy, but also sort of brushed it off because well, it was NYE which came with obvious drinks consumed in celebration. Two days later, I had to fly back to Raleigh, but Jason stayed behind. He took me to the airport and when he dropped me off, he said, loud and clear, “I love you.” and I responded in kind. I was so happy I think I skipped through the terminal and smiled at every cranky airport worker. Nothing could ruin my mood.

So, we kept dating – seriously – for another year, and when I was 23, Jason moved to Wrightsville Beach for a job. I didn’t want to uproot my whole life for a boy, so we agreed that this would be a good testing period. If we were apart and just couldn’t stand it, then we would know we should get married and if we were apart and didn’t mind it, then well…. it wasn’t meant to be.

After three months of living a two hour drive apart (I would visit on the weekends), Jason popped the question. And 10 months later (I was 24 and Jason was 27), we were married.

Our love story is special because it’s ours, but I also think it’s special because we took things extremely slow. Like if a turtle and a snail were racing with our relationship, they would have beat us. But at the same time, I knew that when Jason and I took the next step, it would mean that without a doubt we were both ready for it and sure of it. And that is truly something special.

Happy Valentine’s Day you sexy Mofrickas!

*Note: She probably doesn’t think she is crazy, but aren’t all ex girlfriends crazy at least for a little while?

Update: I was just asking myself why on earth do I feel the need to focus on what ages Jason I were during the telling of this story, and the answer just hit me. I found out last week that my brother and his fiance were actually married a year ago… or so he told us. Then, I found out last night (thanks to marriage licenses being public record) that nope, they’ve been married for two years which means she was 20 and he was 22 when they got married and decided to hide it from everyone for two years. And while the age at which is appropriate to be married varies depending on opinion, I guess it subconsciously prompted me to enter my own ages into my story. Not sure why I felt the need to but it’s there nonetheless.

(birthday cupcakes from Gigi’s)

This weekend was Jason’s 33rd birthday.The big three three! The best advice I can give you when getting married is to marry a man older than you because then when you are on the verge of turning 30, you will still feel young in comparison. Forget communication, compromise and honesty, what I’ve just told you here is definitely the secret to marriage happiness. For sure.

To celebrate Jason’s birthday he just wanted to hang out, just the two of us. I happily obliged him and used his birthday as an opportunity to stick a candle in everything, including pancakes.

The highlight of this birthday celebration was a tour at the Big Boss Brewery. I’d venture to say that Big Boss is our favorite local beer company and it was so sweet of them to plan a tour on Jason’s birthday. They have another one the second Saturday of every month.

There were a lot of people there to celebrate with us. Unfortunately, sticking a candle in a beer was not an option.

After the tour, we went to Jason’s favorite hangout, World of Beer. It is just what it sounds like – a world of beer. They have 50 different beers on draft and 500 different bottles, which all rotate depending on availability. It’s a little overwhelming, so I just stuck with a beer flight and got tastes of four different beers and “mixed beers” (like a chocolate stout with a blueberry ale… yum!) that all sounded interesting.

After our afternoon of brew tasting, we had dinner at our current favorite restaurant, Mia Francesca’s. Apparently, this is currently the only location outside of Chicago and the bartender let slip that the restaurant was actually paid to open its doors here in Raleigh. We are so glad they did because this place is so good. They make all of the pastas from scratch and the bolognese is to die for.

Happy 33rd birthday Jason! I love you!